ROBBERIES AND ASSAULTS WORRY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MADEIRA

Insecurity around the University of Madeira has increased, with robberies and attacks reported by the educational community.

According to the Academida da Madeira newspaper, Et.Al, “There are several episodes reported by the academic community in recent months, in a growing sense of insecurity that motivated university authorities to request, in the summer of 2022, a reinforcement of policing that, from the reported incidents, it seems that the desired effect did not appear. Not even the interior of the building escaped”.

This source says that the rector of the University of Madeira himself acknowledged “insecurity in the vicinity” of the University Campus of Penteada, at the Colégio dos Jesuítas in Funchal and at the university residence. The statements are from a communication sent to the Regional Commander of the Public Security Police, in June 2022, reporting several episodes of violence, aggression, vandalism and robberies. In February, after new episodes, the rectory said that it had “articulated with the local authorities a reinforcement of the supervision of the areas around this higher education infrastructure”.

It is also written by the Académica newspaper that “in a situation of fear and insecurity, which seems to have no precedent in recent years, the university community reported several incidents in a climate that is classified, by students interviewed by ET AL., as an escalation of violence in a space they expect to be safe. 

According to the Public Security Police (PSP), the patrolling and criminal investigation actions of the Funchal Police Division have been able to “recover stolen materials and identify the presumed perpetrators of the crimes”.

The crimes have also occurred inside the University Campus. According to the rectory, “additional procedures and equipment have been adopted and implemented to increase the security of the UMa’s infrastructures, given that the UMa’s intervention in outer space is manifestly limited”. The PSP claimed to have carried out “the arrest in flagrante delicto of 2 authors of a crime of theft inside” the building of the Campus Universitário da Penteada.

According to the same source, there are reports, communicated by the UMa to the police authorities last summer, of “students molested by homeless people”, of “vandalism in vehicles” abandoned in the areas surrounding the UMa, “usual overnight stay of homeless people ”, “graffiti actions” on the walls of the building, “use of some areas” of the campus for private night celebrations without licensing and the well-known robberies in the Bar dos Estudantes, which occurred last year”.

The PSP indicates “the arrest of 2 perpetrators of a crime of theft inside the University of Madeira”

From Jornal Madeira